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Finder: How do I fix grayed-out files?

I'm a new Apple computer user with 38 years of Windows experience. I managed to transfer some image files to an external SSD drive and they ended up all grayed out. Can't access these files or view them or move them.


I found a YouTube video that explains how to fix these files by using XCode. But the video is old and XCode may have changed. I can't get into an editing screen that will allow me to do what the YouTube video suggests. I'm supposed to apply "xattr"


Any help to fix these many grayed out files will be appreciated. I've searched everywhere on line without success.

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Apr 14, 2016 1:33 PM

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27 replies

Nov 4, 2017 9:56 AM in response to Vincenti41

I've had this ongoing problem as well. By accident today I stumbled upon something: It might, apparently, (in my case anyway), depend on the path you choose to get to that file. If I attempt to get to a file by first opening Pages and then clicking Open, I see a list of Pages files, many of which are grayed out (usually those which have been copied and pasted). However. today I discovered if I first open Finder, and then attempt to go to those files, none of them are grayed out.

Apr 14, 2016 2:12 PM in response to Vincenti41

First, please restart the computer if you haven't already done so since you noticed the problem. That might be all you need to do.

Otherwise, select one of the items in question in the Finder and open the Info window. If the Modified date is January 24, 1984, see below.

Back up all data before proceeding.

Select the text on the line below by dragging across it. Don't include the blank space at the end of the line. Only the text should be highlighted.

touch -t 198001010000

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V, then press the space bar.

Now switch to the Finder and and select all the item(s) in question. If there are thousands of items, only select a hundred or so. Drag into the Terminal window. More text will be added to what you entered.

Click in the Terminal window to activate it, then press return.

Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear. You can then quit Terminal.

Relaunch the Finder. You should now be able to access the files as usual. The modification dates will still be inaccurate, but they'll be corrected the next time you modify the files.

Apr 14, 2016 2:50 PM in response to Vincenti41

I tried your suggestion Linc Davis. No change occurred. First time, I dragged in a lot of files (less than a hundred, I believe) Terminal acted like it was going nuts pasting and pasting text. Had to quit Terminal. Second time I tried just one file with no result at all. Terminal just did as you said it would but no change in Finder.


Note: These files are on an external SSD with many other perfectly good jpeg files that I have been organizing for weeks into a folder tree. The drive is formatted for Mac. These grayed-out files were the first ones I tried to move to the SSD.


Using OS X.11.1

Apr 14, 2016 3:53 PM in response to Linc Davis

No, didn't change anything, and I did relaunch Finder but it never shuts down so... There are like 18,000 + of these grayed out files. I doubt most of them ever got fully transferred. I just tried a free app from the app store which allows attribute changing but it could not read the grayed files.

Also tried Irfanview, same problem. The apps you suggested (and I have LibreOffice), will they be able to read these grayed files?

Apr 15, 2016 12:05 PM in response to Linc Davis

I put this together in Irfanview: First entry was using the file name after I dragged and dropped it. Hit enter, went to Finder, closed it, rebooted it and no change. (By the way, I've rebooted the computer twice since yesterday last post). So I noticed backslashes befor spaces in the file name that happens when I drag and drop the file in Terminal. So I tried just typing the file name exactly as it appears (see insert of a few of the grayed files). Still no results. Hit enter and repeated as above. So this is where I left it this morning. (I covered up the path up to the dollar sign.)

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Finder: How do I fix grayed-out files?

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